One of the things about moving into an old house is that you notice the mess and dirt that the last lot of inhabitants left far more than they ever would have done. The lovely steps, which have always reminded me of an Escher drawing, were one such example. I imagine the people we bought the house from didn’t quite notice how dirty the wood had become since they put it in, how covered in algae and how slippery it all became when wet.

We did notice, though, and perhaps it mattered more to us because we use the garden so much. I trudge up those steps at least twice a day to deal with the chickens, and when it is wet, I’ve been terrified that I might slip. So when Jeyes asked if we wanted to review their outdoor disinfectant, those slippy steps seemed like a perfect way of testing it out.

Warning: this is strong stuff. I’d only resort to something like this when I really, really need it. Most of the time I prefer to use natural products to keep things clean, but when the dirt is so bad, as in this case, the Jeyes was the best option.

Here are the steps before:

We mixed the Jeyes fluid with water, as instructed, and applied to the steps. Then we gave them a good scrub and hosed it off. Here’s the finished result, after just one go:

As you can see, we do need one more go to remove all the grime, particularly from the nooks and crannies on this. But the steps are now safe to walk on when it’s wet, and they look like wood, rather than grimy chunks. So thanks, Jeyes. We’ll be using your terrifyingly powerful outdoor disinfectant again.

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